@GTWBB and Louisville Meet Sunday at 2 pm

Jan. 2, 2016

The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team hosts Louisville in its ACC home opener on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN3. Sunday is the Yellow Jackets Salute to Service game so all service members will receive free entry with proper ID. Sunday is also kids day so all children 18 and under will receive free admission. The first 1,000 fans will get a free Brave and Bold GT Rally towel. 

STARTING FIVE

1. Georgia Tech welcomes Louisville on Sunday for its first home ACC game of the season on at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN3 and can be heard on 91.1 WREK/WREK.org.
2. This will be only the second meeting between Georgia Tech and Louisville. It is the Cardinals’ first trip to McCamish Pavilion. In the first meeting between the two teams last, Louisville defeated Georgia Tech, 75-47 in the 2015 ACC opener at the KFC Yum! Center.
3. Senior Aaliyah Whiteside is averaging a team-best 19.9 points per game which leads the ACC and is 27th in the nation. She is also Tech’s leading rebounder with 7.6 boards per game. She became the 29th Yellow Jacket to score 1,000 career points against Southeastern Louisiana. She has scored at least 21 points in 10 of 14 games and had four-straight double-doubles this season. She notched a career-best 28 points in the Yellow Jackets’ victory at IUPUI.
4. The Yellow Jackets finished off the nonconference season with a 10-3 record and a perfect 8-0 record at home. Tech’s five-game winning streak was snapped in its ACC opener after falling 85-76 at #3/3 Notre Dame.
5. Head coach MaChelle Joseph became the all-time winningest coach in Georgia Tech women’s basketball history last year and has a career record of 242-153 and the highest winning percentage in Yellow Jacket history at 61.3 percent. She is currently in her 13th season at the helm of the Jackets.

a win would...
– Be the first win against Louisville in program history and tie the series at 1-1.
– Keep the Yellow Jackets undefeated at home at 9-0 this season.
– Give the Yellow Jackets an overall ACC record of 189-337 and an 88-94 record in the ACC under Coach Joseph.
– Be the 243rd win of Coach Joseph’s career and her 396th game at the helm of the Jackets putting her just four games away from hitting the 400 mark.
– Give Georgia Tech its 618th program win and put Georgia Tech at 618-580 overall over 41 years of women’s basketball.

series notes vs. LOUISVILLE
This will be the second meeting in the series against Louisville. The Yellow Jackets lost the first meeting against the Cardinals last season, 75-48, in the ACC opener in Louisville. Aaliyah Whiteside recorded a double-double in the loss last season, leading the Jackets with 17 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals. Roddreka Rogers also scored in double-figures, tallying 11 points and grabbing five rebounds. The Yellow Jackets recorded 14 steals but committed 24 turnovers in the loss.

HOME SWEET HOME
All-time, the Yellow Jackets are 342-196 (.635) when playing at home. Since McCamish Pavilion opened in the beginning of the 2012 season, the Yellow Jackets have gone 36-8 (.818) while playing in the state-of-art facility. Under Joseph’s direction, Georgia Tech has gone 141-48 (.746) playing on The Flats.

This season, the Yellow Jackets are averaging 84.2 points at home and a +29.5 margin of victory. Tech is a perfect 8-0 at home this season.

leading by example
With Tech’s roster featuring nine freshmen and sophomores, seniors Aaliyah Whiteside and Roddreka Rogers’ leadership is key. The veteran duo has teamed up to score 43 percent of GT’s offensive output this season and have pulled down 37 percent of the Jackets’ rebounds this season. Whiteside has scored at least 21 points in 10 of 14 games while Rogers has tallied three double-doubles.

The senior duo led the Yellow Jackets to a 60-50 victory at IUPUI. Rogers and Whiteside combined to score 48 of Tech’s 60 points and the two went a combined 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 30 seconds of the game to secure the victory. Whiteside scored a career-best 28 points while Rogers recorded a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

cryor carries the jackets
Freshman Ciani Cryor scored a season-best 19 points at Notre Dame, shooting 8-for-12 from the floor. Cryor led the Jackets in scoring, assists (3) and steals (4). It was her fourth time scoring in double-figures this season and the second time leading Tech in scoring. She led the Jackets with 17 points in a win against Alabama.

Cryor is fourth on the Jackets in scoring (8.4 ppg) and leads the Jackets in steals, averaging 2.4 a game which is sixth in the ACC.

keeping track of aaliyah
Senior Aaliyah Whiteside has scored at least 21 points in 10 out of 14 games this season. Her 10 20 point games are the most by any player in the ACC. She is averaging an ACC-high 19.9 points per game, which is 27th in the nation, and has scored 278 points so far, which is the most by an ACC player and 10th in the NCAA. Whiteside has scored at least 20 points in 17 games in her career.

After recovering from being sick, Whiteside only scored eight points against Alabama, snapping an 18-game streak of scoring at least 10 points, which dated back to last season. She followed up her eight-point game with a career-high 28 points at IUPUI. She has scored in double figures in 20 out of 21 games.

Whiteside has four double-doubles this season and nine in her career.  Her four this season came in consecutive games from Indiana to Prairie View A&M. Against Prairie View A&M, she scored 14 points and handing out 11 assists for her first points/assists double-double. In the contest, she had nine rebounds, putting her one rebound away from a triple-double.